Category: Loose Thoughts

Note, this article is part of our continuing series of articles titled “Dealing With….”. This special series is designed to provide simple practical advice of immediate usefulness to federal employees (and even local and state employees to a certain degree) dealing with…

Note: This Article (provided below and unchanged) was first published March 2, 2013. We are republishing it in the wake of the Mr. Trump’s controversial election (lost popular vote by three million, associated Russian cyber hacking, conflicts of interest, etc…) and…

There is a prevailing theory that it is usually better to have union representation, than not have union representation, given such need. While we are certainly proponents of labor organizations and their representational roles, particularly since we have been on…

At InformedFed, we often receive calls from federal employees seeking advice and consultation concerning whistleblower claims in the context of retaliation, employee relations, and filing for status with the Office of Special Counsel. Throughout the last eighteen months, we received…

“I Hate My Union. They Are Corrupt and Incompetent” That is an actual quote we received from a dues paying union member of a large federal employee bargaining unit. Such sentiments are not unusual. Many union members feel disenfranchised for a variety of…

Note, this is our second article in a series of articles titled “Dealing With….”. This special series is designed to provide simple practical advice of immediate usefulness to federal employees (and even local and state employee to a certain degree) dealing with…

The issue of authorized absence (also referred by some and many as excused absence, administrative leave, “no charge to leave”) comes up en masse every year about this time. During the latter half of January 2016, the top search term…

One of the most common questions we receive concerns the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) complaint process. Yes, without question, the process can be very confusing to the uninitiated. This is why there are numerous published EEO complaint process charts. Here, we present…

Recently, our consultants were contacted by clients notified by their respective agencies that the agency was proposing removal from employment. In all cases, the affected employees (clients) waited to contact a consultant until well after they received the notice of proposed…

Maybe, Maybe Not- You Decide Federal employee disability retirement applications are often confusing to employees. However, outcomes are generally not. It has been our collective experience, applications for disability retirement from Federal service are generally approved by the Office of…

Whether you are a union representative representing an employee in an adverse action under appeal at the Merit Systems Protection Board, or you are an employee representing yourself, the can be an indispensable tool. This handbook provides all the procedural…

With the recent outbreak of severe weather, we received many inquiries from federal employees concerning Excused Absence (also called “Authorized Absence” and even “Administrative Leave” by some agencies). (Note, Excused Absence should not be confused with granting of “liberal leave”…

If you recognized the title of this article, chances are you are an Employee Labor Relations practitioner (some capacity) in the field of federal employee labor relations or you are the unfortunate appellant concerning some type of adverse action. This…

Believe it or not, there once was a time when Republicans and ultra Tea Party conservatives (yes, they are different) had not yet convinced the American public federal employees were the functional equivalent of the Taliban. Of course, there are many…

When facing an adverse personnel action (such as removal, demotion, etc.), or other issue necessitating some form of representation (such as EEO, administrative grievance, etc.), federal employees at all grade levels must decided whether they will engage some form of representation…

In a previous post, we provided a brief introduction and explanation concerning the Douglas Factors. Be sure to read that post before reading this post. In this post, we are going to demonstrate one method of incorporating a response to…

An EEO Complaint may be settled at any time during the entire process from Informal Counseling (precomplaint stage) to EEOC Hearing. Many Complaints are settled between the formal complaint and the Final Agency Decision (Hadley). However, there are certain defined…

The Combined Federal Campaign must (still) die. Last year, we published this post and took some heat….at first. However, we soon received many e-mails agreeing with our position. Well, here we are again, with federal employee pay falling even further behind…

Where There is Smoke, There is Fire. But………… There is no dispute something unacceptable at the Veterans Health Administration happened concerning patient scheduling. However, we noticed the sudden plethora of whistle-blowers coming forward after the initial claim stemming from a…

What We See When Dealing With Agencies During the course of working with employees, we have the opportunity assist them with MSPB, EEOC, arbitration, ULP’s, grievances, requests for information, and even OSC matters. Subsequently, we also have the opportunity to deal…

Post by Anonymous Regarding Veterans Affairs We recently received this information from a someone who posted at the GovExec.com site. He (or she) reports GovExec.com would not approve the reply. We recently incorporated some of the information from in a…

Your Federal Career Decision Making – Strategies for Success By Karol Taylor Karol Taylor is a retired fed and Career Counselor who helps people get federal jobs. She is the coauthor of Guide to America’s Federal Jobs: A Complete Directory of U.S. Government…

Union Indifference and it’s Implication on You In a previous post, we covered the complexity of representation and a local union’s ability to effectively function in a complex representational environment. This post concerns union indifference. It is important to distinguish…

……Can Cost You Your Job and More Often, our consultants are brought into situations in which the local labor union has begun representation of an employee or in which we are asked to work with the local labor union in…